2023 Workshop on Free Energy Methods in Drug Design
Introduction
This workshop has been rolled over from the schedule 2020 event, and will focus on the current state of free energy techniques. Registration for the 2020 conference will be held. Refunds are available and more places may become available.
Our goal in this workshop is to bring together experts from pharma and supporting industries, as well as academia, in an intense and focused workshop to identify challenges and help chart the path forward. We are particularly interested in hearing about use cases, pitfalls and their solutions. We also firmly believe we can learn a great deal from failure, so we hope participants will go beyond just highlighting success stories to provide more detailed insight into successes and failures.
Dates and Location
The conference is tentatively scheduled for May 2022, at the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, MA.
Accommodation
Discount rates may be available for some hotels in the area. Novartis suggests that attendants individually call CWT at 1-800-929-2231 and ask for the “Novartis discount rate” at the following hotels (mentioning their attendance to a workshop at NIBR):
Le Meridian (20 Sidney Street, Cambridge MA)
Hyatt Regency (575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA)
Kimpton Marlowe Hotel (25 Edwin H Land Blvd, Boston MA)
Cambridge Marriott (120 Broadway Six Cambridge Center, Cambridge MA)
Novartis is close to the Central stop on the red line, as well as the number 1 bus route, and there may be more affordable accommodation options using these transport links.
Registration
Registration will cost $100 for admission to the 2.5 day conference, which will cover both breakfast and lunch, as well as refreshments in the evening sessions. We will also be accepting submitted abstracts for oral and poster presentations at this time. The deadline for oral presentations is December 16th 2019, while poster presentations is March 27th 2020 DUE TO POSTPONEMENT: June 26th 2020. Submitting an abstract alone does not guarantee you a place, please make sure to register too.
- Registration is full! To join the waitlist please contact Hannah Bruce Macdonald (hannah.brucemacdonald@choderalab.org). If you are no longer planning to attend, please let us know and we can refund your fee via paypal.
- Abstract submission is here
Workshop Themes
As this is the 10(+3)th birthday of the first 2010 free energy workshop, we will be holding a session celebrating the last 10 years - how far have we come, and where do we still need to go?
Other sessions will be held to discuss the current software that is currently available to the field - both commercial packages, and open-source academic efforts.
Discussions about the novel methods and algorithms that are in development and where these can be best applied will be held.
Results of free energy methods will be presented - both the successes and the limitations - with the idea of addressing what the community would like to see at the following meeting.
Finally, half a day of talks will be dedicated to the intersection of free energy methods with machine learning.
Sponsors, Social Media and Streaming
Sponsors
We would like to thank the following sponsors:
We are currently looking for sponsorship for the event. If your organisation would be interested, please contact any of the organisers.
Particular thanks to the Boston Area Group for Informatics and Modeling (BAGIM)for helping with the financial organisation of this meeting.
Social Media
Twitter hashtags: #alchemy2020
Slack: https://alchemistry.slack.com
Streaming
We will be streaming the conference, and uploading talks after the conference, however the recording of any talk is at the discretion of the speaker, their employer and collaborators.
Schedule
Talks will be held from 9am to 6pm (Wednesday and Thursday) or 3pm (Friday) at Novartis.
Keynote speaker
- Herman van Vlijmen, Janssen
Confirmed speakers
- Robert Abel, Schrödinger
- Christopher Bayly, OpenEye Scientific
- Ido Y. Ben-Shalom, University of California, San Diego
- Phil Biggin, University of Oxford
- Heather Carlson, University of Michigan
- Chia-en Chang, University California Riverside
- Chris Chipot, University of Illinois
- Lucy Colwell, University of Cambridge
- Francesca Deflorian, Sosei Heptares
- Alex Dickson, Michigan State University
- Jonathan Essex, University of Southampton
- Gianni de Faabrits, Acellera
- Andrey Frolov, AstraZeneca
- Niels Hansen, University of Stuttgart
- William Jorgensen, Yale University
- Dariah Kokh, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
- Wonpil Im, Lehigh University
- Yun Lyna Luo, Western University of Health Sciences
- Mark Mackey, Cresset
- Katarina Meier, Bayer
- David Mobley, University California, Irvine
- Julien Michel, University of Edinburgh
- David Minh, Illinois Institute of Technology
- Aysegul Ozen, Blueprint Medicines
- Jay Ponder, Washington University in St. Louis
- Prabhu Raman, BIOVIA
- Sereina Riniker, ETH Zürich
- Christina Schindler, Merck KGaA
- Michael Schnieders, University of Iowa
- Woody Sherman, Silicon Therapeutics
- Michael Shirts, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Hugo Gutierrez de Teran, University of Uppsala
- David Thompson, CCG
- Jonah Vilseck, Indiana University School of Medicine
- Lingle Wang, Schrödinger
- Lance Westerhoff, QuantumBio Inc.
- Xin Cindy Yan, Merck & Co., Inc.
- Joy Yang, Pfizer
- Darrin York, Rutgers University
- Yutong Zhao, Relay Therapeutics
Organizers
- Kira Armacost, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (kira.x.armacost@gsk.com)
- Hannah Bruce Macdonald, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (hannah.brucemacdonald@choderalab.org)
- Jonah Vilseck, Indiana University School of Medicine (jvilseck@iu.edu)
- Zoe Cournia, Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (zcournia@bioacademy.gr)
- Michael Gilson, UC San Diego (mgilson@ucsd.edu)
- Camilo Velez-Vega, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (camilo.velez-vega@novartis.com)
- Sereina Riniker, ETH Zürich (sriniker@ethz.ch)
- Anthony Arvanites, Eli Lilly and BAGIM (aarvanites@bagim.org)
We also thank current advisors and previous organizers:
- Brian McClain, Vertex (brian_mcclain@vrtx.com)
- Vijay Pande, Stanford University (pande@stanford.edu)
- Michael Shirts, University of Colorado Boulder (michael.shirts@colorado.edu)
- Camilo Velez-Vega, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (camilo.velez-vega@novartis.com)
- John Chodera, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (john.chodera@choderalab.org)
- Greg Bowman, Washington University in St. Louis (bowman@biochem.wustl.edu)
- Callum Dickson, Novartis (callum.dickson@novartis.com)
- Jose Duca, Novartis (jose.duca@novartis.com)
- Viktor Hornak, Novartis (viktor.hornak@novartis.com)
- John Manchester, Novartis (john.manchester@novartis.com)
- Antonia Mey, University of Edinburgh (antonia.mey@ed.ac.uk)
- David Mobley, University of California at Irvine (dmobley@uci.edu)
- Michael Schnieders, The University of Iowa (michael-schnieders@uiowa.edu)
- Jana Shen, The University of Maryland (Jana.Shen@rx.umaryland.edu)
- Woody Sherman, Silicon Therapeutics (woody@silicontx.com)
Conference Code of Conduct
All attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at our conference are required to agree with the following code of conduct. Organisers will enforce this code throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everybody.
Need Help? Please contact the organising committee either in person or via email. Members of the organising committee are listed above.
The Quick Version
Our conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Twitter and other online media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organisers.
The Less Quick Version
Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion, technology choices, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
Sponsors are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, sponsors should not use sexualised images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualised clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualised environment.
If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the organising committee immediately.
A member of the organising committee will be happy to help participants contact local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.
We expect participants to follow these rules at conference and workshop venues and conference-related social events.
The code of conduct text was taken from https://github.com/confcodeofconduct/confcodeofconduct.com in a slightly adapted form.